Hi and thanks for visiting the Colliers Wood Residents Association Friends of Colliers Wood Parks and Green Spaces Group Volunteer page. If you are a first time visitor and wish to just find out more about our volunteer work, or if you are a regular volunteer looking for links to the latest work day information, then this is the page for you.
The 1st step to joining our volunteer group
Perhaps you have seen one of our social media posts and have ended up here keen to know how to get involved. We encourage volunteers to subscribe to our WhatsApp group as that is where the majority of conversation happens. The group discusses our upcoming volunteering days across Colliers Wood as well as related local park and green spaces topics of interest. You can join the group by scanning this QR Code with your mobile phone – just open your camera and point it at this image – a link should pop up – click on this to join the WhatsApp group. You may need to download a QR Scanner App from your App Store first.
We appreciate not everyone is keen on social media or the may not want to use WhatApp. If you prefer to speak to someone in person please do pop in to the community centre who will have information regarding how to contact us directly or send us an email by clicking on this link.
The volunteer projects managed by the Parks & Green Spaces Group
We have 4 main types of volunteer activity – gardening, litter picking, river cleaning and watering. Click on the images below for more information about each of these project areas.
Upcoming volunteer days
For upcoming work days please follow this link to the volunteer calendar or post of upcoming work day detail. The most up-to-date information is always shared within the WhatsApp group.
We don’t ask for any time commitment as we work on these projects on an ad-hoc basis as and when required, which is often determined simply by volunteer availability or time of year. We do have Regular volunteering days scheduled across the month for gardening and litter picking. River cleaning is seasonal and takes place as the need arises.
Litter Picking: 2nd Tue in every Month 9am | 4th Sunday in every month 11am
Gardening: 1st Thursday in every month 10am | Last Saturday in every month 10am
Meeting points can change and the latest updates will always be sent via our WhatsApp group. More regularly we work in Colliers Wood Recreation ground, Wandle Park and in the Wandle River or on the banks (as it flows around Sainsburys or through Wandle Park.
Our project locations and local map
Our projects take us all across Colliers Wood. Follow this link to see all the local areas we cover.
Why Volunteer with the Friends Group?
We find people volunteer in a community group for a variety of reasons. Some are keen to make new friends and wish to take an active role in their community. Volunteering can be very useful for people to gain more experience before a career change. For others, the opportunity to spend time outdoors with plants and a friendly group can bring huge mental health benefits. We also have people interested in contributing to a greener more sustainable environment which encourages natural habitats and wildlife.
If you are keen to take practical action to help our community become a more welcoming and pleasant place to live, we welcome new volunteers to join and get involved in some great projects in our local area. No experience is needed. We are a mixed ability group from completely novice gardeners who can barely recognise a flower from a weed, to those who can identity a plant by its Latin name and know instantly if it would thrive in the local environment.
All equipment is provided.
We are also aware that joining a group activity for the first time may be daunting. So please get in touch directly via social media or by sending an email and we will do what we can to help to put your mind at rest.
If you are looking to join a volunteer community group with whatever skill or time commitment you have, we really look forward to meeting and welcoming you on board. Thanks for your interest.
Other useful information
For more general information and read about our past projects, please continue reading below.
Please also visit our Twitter, Instagram and new Facebook social media accounts. For any specific enquiries our email is: cwraparksandgreenspaces@gmail.com
Some of our volunteer projects:
- Planting and maintaining plants and green areas in Colliers Wood Recreation Ground or Wandle Park
- Maintaining many of the planters around Colliers Wood, on and off the High Street
- Creating new local green spaces on disused or neglected strips of land
- Generating interesting areas for children to encourage their awareness and understanding of environmental issues and green spaces
- Watering plants, particularly in hot spells
- Fortnightly litter picking